Music Teacher Demands Police to Dismiss Arbitrary Detention Decision for Her Faith in Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A 47-year-old middle school music teacher in Wuhan City, Hebei Province was taken away from her home to a police station on December 1, 2022 for an interrogation about her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

The police gave Ms. He Yan 15 days of detention, but the local detention center refused to accept her, citing the pandemic. After Ms. He returned home, she filed administrative reconsideration with the local justice bureau and also demanded that the police dismiss the 15-day detention given to her.

Arrest and Home Raid

Ms. He was cooking at around 10 a.m. on December 1, when the police suddenly knocked on the door. Her mother opened the door and the police demanded to see her.

Ms. He walked over to the door and saw an officer in police uniform and several other officers in plainclothes. The officer in uniform, named Wu Zhigang, had a camera on his left shoulder, which was recording Ms. He.

Wu claimed Ms. He was a suspect and he was summoning her to their police station to answer some questions. Ms. He noticed that the “summons” he was waving only had a seal of the police station, but with no one’s signature. She pointed out the violation of legal procedure, but Wu responded that the seal was enough.

Ms. He took a picture of the summons. As she was checking the photo, Wu snatched away her phone. Ms. He took the phone back and said that was actually her father’s phone. She decided to go with them to find out why they were going after her.

Before they left, Wu demanded to search Ms. He’s home. The search warrant he showed her also didn’t have anyone’s signature, but only a seal. He went to Ms. He’s room and took pictures of her Falun Gong books, computer, printer, a stack of copy paper and some small packing bags. He claimed that he would compare the confiscated items with the evidence he already had.

While Wu and the other officers were searching Ms. He’s home, she still tried to explain to them that no law criminalizes Falun Gong in China and that the ban on Falun Gong books had been lifted by the Chinese Publication Bureau.

In the end, Wu called in two more officers to help move the confiscated items. He refused to provide a list of the items to Ms. He, claiming that it was not for her to see or keep.

Interrogation

Ms. He was taken to a room on the first floor of the Wujiashanjie Police Station. After a short while, Wu demanded to go back to her home for another search. This time, he said it was to look for the clothes she was seen wearing in the surveillance videos. Wu found matching pants and a purse, but not the tops.

After Ms. He was taken back to the police station, the police searched her, collected her fingerprints, palm prints, height, and a blood sample against her will. She tried to resist by holding a firm fist, but the police forced her fist open, injuring her fingers in the process. One officer kicked her in the calf at the same time.

Wu and another officer, Zhang Gen, interrogated Ms. He on whether she distributed Falun Gong materials at a plaza. She refused to answer and demanded to see the legal basis for them labeling Falun Gong as a cult. The police ignored her and made up answers to their questions, such as writing “I understood” when she didn’t say anything. After she found out, the police changed the answer to “Silence.” Afterwards, they ordered her to sign the interrogation records, but she refused to comply.

The police also printed a copy of the punishment decision and directed her to sign it. She insisted to be shown the legal basis for labeling Falun Gong a cult. She also demanded the police to provide some explanation about the charge of her “inciting something.” The police remained silent and stopped asking her to sign the document.

At 11 p.m., a plainclothes officer came back with an updated punishment decision, which removed the word “inciting.”

After the detention center refused to admit Ms. He, the police decided to release her. The plainclothes officer also returned her computer and Falun Gong books, but still refused to provide the list of confiscated items to her.

Continued Harassment

Officer Wu went to Ms. He’s home again on December 6 with two plainclothes officers. He blamed her for giving his phone number to other Falun Gong practitioners, who made so many calls to him demanding Ms. He’s release.

Wu ordered her to turn her Falun Gong books back to him, saying that they were needed for further investigation. He claimed that the officer who returned the books to her when he was not around made a mistake.

Ms. He said that it has been five days since she returned home. If Wu wanted her books, why didn’t he come earlier? She added that it’s completely legal for her to have the books, but Wu insisted on confiscating them.

This time, Wu showed her a search warrant, which was signed by Wu Jianyou, the deputy head of Wujiashanjie Police Station, and Huang Jiping, another police director. Wu Zhigang also gave her a copy of the confiscation list that she had been asking for.

Ms. He told him that she was preparing to file an administrative reconsideration of the punishment imposed on her and demanded to take another look at the summons Wu showed her last time, as the photo she took was blurry.

Wu showed it to her, which stated that she was “using cults to endanger society,” and that the summons was based on Article 82 of the “Public Security Management Punishment Law of the People’s Republic of China.” This time, Wu didn’t allow Ms. He to take a photo of it.

Wu next went to Ms. He’s room and forcibly took away her Falun Gong books. One of the plainclothes officers that came with him said to Ms. He, “You can sue us if you have an objection.”

After they left, Ms. He took a closer look at the confiscation list Wu gave her, which was dated December 1 and stated that she refused to sign it. She suspected that the police made up the list after she was released, as she was never asked to sign the list on December 1 and the police also repeatedly refused to provide a copy when she kept asking for it.

Demanding Administrative Reconsideration to Dismiss the Detention Decision

Ms. He mailed the administrative reconsideration request to the Dongxihu District Justice Bureau on December 7. She also sent in a request to the police, demanding them to dismiss her detention.

Ms. He pointed out that the police violated legal procedure in handling her case, by presenting a summons and a search warrant without any signatures and refusing to provide a list of confiscated items or going through the items with her right after the home raid.

Ms. He said that the arrest, home-raid and administrative punishment of 15-day detention have caused tremendous mental distress to her and her parents. She maintained that she didn’t violate any law in practicing Falun Gong and that all the items confiscated from her were her personal, legal belongings. There was no legal basis for the punishment decision that the police made regarding her.

After Ms. He filed the requests, she noticed that she was being followed by cars when she went out. She also heard motorized vehicles idling outside her apartment during the night. She suspects that the police were monitoring her personal life at home, as well.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Zhang Jianyu (章建育), secretary of Dongxihu District Political and Legal Affairs CommitteeXiao Junyuan (肖俊元), deputy secretary of Dongxihu District Political and Legal Affairs CommitteeWang Su (汪粟), deputy director of Dongxihu District 610 Office: [phone], [phone], [phone]

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)